Laura Ortiz thought she could change the lives of children in Colombia’s most remote region by giving them books. But a trip there teaches her that she was the one who had much to learn from those communities.

How to Listen

Transcript

Martina: When Laura Ortiz was growing up in Colombia in the 80s, she had a favorite children’s musical group. It was called Oki Doki.

Laura: Ellos tenían una canción que se llamaba: “Paren no disparen”.

Martina:Paren no disparen, means stop, don’t shoot. Eight-year-old Laura loved this song. She’d jump on her parents bed and sing it at the top of her lungs, using a hairbrush as her microphone:
Paren, paren, paren, no disparen.No destruyan el mundo.Que viva, viva, viva la vida,yo no quiero ser difunto.

Martina: Yo no quiero ser difunto, difunto as in deceased… Nobody was shocked by these song lyrics in Colombia. Children there, especially in rural areas, had to grow up in a true warzone.

Laura: Yo no, yo crecí en Bogotá.

Martina: Bogotá wasn’t super safe, but it certainly wasn’t the scene of the worst violence in the war. Laura had always wanted to do something to help the kids who weren’t as lucky as she was. So when she graduated with a degree in literature she thought of something she could offer them.

Martina: She thought literature could offer those kids a new world of possibilities, but her world was going to drastically change as well.

Laura: Yo era la que iba a aprender.

Martina: Bienvenidos and welcome to the Duolingo Spanish Podcast — I’m Martina Castro. Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories to help you improve your Spanish listening and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish and I will be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again – and we also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Martina: Laura’s love of literature led her to sign up for a government-funded program called Fiesta de la lectura, or The Reading Party. The program funded trips from Bogotá to rural areas of the country, so participants could share books with the communities there.

Martina: The last hour of the trip, the boat entered a mangrove forest, where trees with massive root structures grow from the soil in the brackish water. This was the first sign that they were close to Timbiquí.

Martina: As soon as they arrived, they ran into a couple of heavily armed officials from the Anti-kidnapping and Anti-bribery divisions of the national police. They were wearing sunglasses, camouflage uniforms, helmets and bulletproof vests. They were also carrying huge guns.

Martina: When the officials left, a young man came up to Laura and her colleagues. He asked them if they were there searching for gold or drugs. It turns out there were illegal mines in this area, and some cocaine factories.

Martina: The young man smiled and left. For the first time, they realized their books were like passports to an area of their own country that they had never visited before.

Martina: Distances in Timbiquí are short. So when Laura’s group arrived, they walked to their first destination. She noticed immediately that they were followed by distrusting gazes from the residents.

Martina: As Laura sipped on her biche, she suddenly realized how it must have seemed to Lucha, for them to walk into her home and instantly start telling her about how things were going to get better, thanks to them. Laura decided to take a different approach.

Martina: Lucha, inspired by the book, took out a guasá. That's a cylindrical instrument made of wood and seeds. As she shook it, she sang a song about the slaves who used to work the gold mines in this area.

Martina: Laura felt something shift. Not just in the room, but in her perspective about the entire trip.

Martina: The next day, Laura and her colleagues got on another boat to visit a community house in a nearby village. As they traveled along the Timbiquí river, they noticed the contamination in the water from the illegal gold mines nearby.1

Martina: As soon as Laura got off the boat she noticed that in the middle of the flag she could make out the letters FARC-EP. Otherwise known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the armed guerrilla movement that was active in the country until 2017.

Martina: This village was even more remote and cut off than Timbiquí. There was no electricity or gas; the radios were all battery powered. Everyone cooked on wood fires and it was common to find jaguars in the vegetable gardens.

Martina: As soon as they made their way to the community house, a line of kids had formed behind them.

Martina: A young 13 year old had also joined the group. He told them in a hushed voice that he wasn’t accepted to attend the middle school in Timbiquí. This meant he would have to go work with the rebel army.

Martina: Laura was pleased to offer the kids an afternoon of playing with chalk and of storytelling. But she came away with something much more profound. Few back in Bogotá had any appreciation for how these “community mothers” are bravely racing and educating children in the midst of an armed conflict... all on their own.

Martina: They could hear the women and children’s voices singing above the loud motor of the boat. As they drifted off, Laura could make out a few words from the song: “blessings”, “goodbye”, “journey”. Some kids even jumped into the river to swim along with them.

Martina: After that day, word got around about these women from Bogotá carrying books. More than 40 “community mothers” who lived in villages across the area asked Laura and her group to come back. They asked them to organize a day-long training for them in Timbiquí.

Martina: But they were so motivated by their experience, that Laura and her group joined forces with the “community mothers” to fund the training themselves. They raised enough money to organize a day-long training where they shared stories, read and sang together.

Martina: But Laura and her colleagues learned from the “community mothers” as well — about their culture and traditions, and about how they keep their communities together in the midst of war. In such a divided and diverse country as Colombia, Laura learned that with a simple act of coming together, they were all constructing peace.

Martina: Laura Ortiz now lives in Buenos Aires, where she works as a librarian and illustrator. This story was written by Tali Goldman, an Argentinian journalist.

If you liked this story, we’d love for you to share it with others. You can find a transcript at podcast.duolingo.com. And you can subscribe at Apple Podcasts or your favorite listening app, so you never miss an episode. With over 300 million users, Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform, and the most downloaded education app in the world. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun and accessible to everyone. To join, download the app today, or find out more at duolingo.com. I’m the podcast’s executive producer, Martina Castro – gracias por escuchar.